Ukraine Asked Israel For Intel On Iran’s Role In Russian Invasion

In a video message published on Sunday, the group announced it has hacked the website of the parliament as part of its ongoing operation against the government of Iran in solidarity with the popular protests triggered by the death in custody of the 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini. 

“Our support for the Iranian protests will continue. As you all know, the government is trying everything to stop you. Don’t give up,” said a distorted voice on the video. “Do not leave the streets. Do not stop the revolution.”

“The Iranian parliament supports the dictator when it should support the people, so we are releasing the personal information of all of them,” the group said. 

On Saturday, the hacking collective took down the website of Iran's state-run Arabic news network Al-Alam, a few days after it attacked the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei amid the nationwide protests in the country. Both the Persian and English versions of Khamenei’s website are still down.

A number of state-run websites in Iran, such as IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency and the news website of the state broadcaster have limited access to their pages from abroad over fears of being attacked by the hacktivist group. 

If Iran government blocks the people from accessing the internet, Anonymous will block the government from accessing the internet, the group has said.

The official website of Iran’s government IRNA reported on Sunday that Simon Shercliff was called in by the ministry on Saturday to convey Tehran’s protest to the UK government for hosting the media channels. 

There are three London-based major Iranian satellite TV channels beaming programs into Iran; Iran International TV, Manoto TV and BBC Persian.

During the meeting, the British envoy was told that by hosting these media outlets, London is interfering in Iran’s affairs, and that Tehran considers this an action against the national sovereignty of our country.

The ministry said that in recent days the media channels have put “incitement of violence and spread of riots” on top of their agenda, referring to the nationwide unrest following the death of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who died in the hands of hijab enforcement police. 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also summoned the Norwegian ambassador over “meddlesome” remarks by the Parliament President, Masud Gharahkhani, an Iranian-Norwegian in support of and solidarity with Iran’s protests, saying his "prejudgment” about the unrest is “wrong” and “unconstructive”.

Numerous protest rallies also have taken place outside the Islamic Republic’s embassies and consulates in cities around the world. 

On Saturday night, two motorcycle-riding men threw a bottle of Molotov cocktail at the building of Iran’s embassy in the Greek capital Athens. 

“We told them to realistically translate their words into action so that we can reach a deal,” he said on Saturday, referring to a final agreement on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Amir-Abdollahian, who is still in New York holding meetings on the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly session, highlighted that he has made it clear to representatives of the European Union and signatories to the JCPOA that Iran possesses the required will and determination to reach an agreement.

“It is now the American side that must have the courage to take a decision in order for us to talk about striking a good, strong, and durable agreement,” the Iranian foreign minister pointed out.

Since the start of the popular protests in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of hijab police, the prospect of restoring the deal seems even dimmer. 

US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said Saturday, “While Iran’s government brutalizes peaceful demonstrators and tries to choke off Iranians’ access to the global internet, the United States is taking action to help the Iranian people communicate with one another.”

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said earlier in the day that the US Treasury's move to issue a General License to boost support for internet freedom in Iran is an effort to "violate Iran's sovereignty" and will not remain unanswered.

The government did the same during the protest that followed the death in custody of a young woman which enraged large groups of Iranians including, most noticeably, women and youths. The regime used force and then tried to put up a show of force, which was the rally on Friday along a half-a-mile route turned out to be a fiasco.

Even the news program on Channel 3 of the state television on Friday was not convinced that the lacklustre rally was a definitive answer to more than a week of protests in Tehran and over 80 other cities. As Abolfazl Najafi Tehrani, an Iranian cleric wrote on Twitter on Saturday, the government is likely to lure and bus demonstrators from small towns around Tehran for yet another "definitive" show of support on Sunday.

In another odd event, the Channel 3 evening news, showed nearly all the user-generated videos of protests that had been aired by foreign-based satellite televisions beaming into Iran, but at the end of every clip it pointed out that protesters insulted the regime’s values, which was true, as demonstrators have made it clear that they do not want the Islamic Republic and clerical rule.

During the past 43 years, the Islamic Republic has done everything possible to impose its "values" on Iranians. However, the presence of tens of thousands of Iranians born after 2000 in the protests revealed that state propaganda has not been successful. Protesters showed to politicians that the teachings of the Islamic Republic are different from those of Islam. They grew up to know the Islamic Republic through major financial corruption cases, inefficient economic and foreign policy, and coercive domestic politics.

A large gathering in front of the notorious Evin prison on Saturday, the beginning of the week in Iran, of individuals looking for their "disappeared" family members, revealed the extent of the government's violence against protesters during the past week. There are long lists of those who have disappeared in recent days on various social media platforms.

Nonetheless, the protests continue with an ever-increasing momentum in the streets of Iran. The government specially cannot believe the large scope and severity of the protests in the religious cities of Qom and Mashad, where protesters fiercely "disciplined" the security forces. Cities such as Rasht, Qazvin, and Tehran have been the scenes of massive anti-government rallies particularly on Friday night.

The continued confrontation after the Islamic Republic's staged-managed rally of its supporters, show the government and protesters, are still testing each other's determination. According to reports, government forces killed at least 35 protesters until Friday. But the actual casualty toll is obviously much higher, as it has always been. In 2019, it took several weeks after the end of the protests for the media to realize that at least 1,500 protesters were shot dead. However, this round of protests still continue with slogans getting increasingly serious. What they chant in the streets is no longer about hijab or the heavy-handed morality police. Based on what they do and say, they want nothing less than a regime change. Whether this is feasible or not, will, among other things, depend on the government and the protesters' determination and their ability and logistics to continue the confrontation.

Molavi Abdolhamid, the religious leader of Iran’s largely Sunni Baluch population living in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan referred to the incident during his sermon on Friday, describing it as “the incident,” without elaborating the names and the details of the case. 

Haalvsh website, a local news outlet, first reported the rape earlier in September but the case was buried, and no investigation took place to follow up the case. 

Colonel Ebrahim Khouchakzai, the commander of the police in the city of Chabahar, allegedly raped the 15-year-old girl when he was investigating a murder case in one of the neighborhoods of the city. Apparently, the girl was the daughter of one of the neighbors of the murdered woman and Khouchakzai took her to his office for questioning and raped her. 

The girl came back home and told her mother that the colonel stripped her clothes off under the pretext of checking her body and then raped her. 

According to the latest reports, the police forces of the city have taken hostage three relatives of the rape victim to force her family to publicly deny the reports and promise not to file complaint against Colonel Khouchakzai.